In May we will add more pages to our Year Book, finish the Quimby project, and type our Social Studies reports. Most students will have reached the required 15 words per minute keyboarding. Those who have not should practice 10 to 20 minutes daily.

During April we will work on two HyperStudio Projects: our Class Year Book & our Harriet Quimby report. Some of the Quimby projects will be uploaded to the web. All will be viewed by younger students. Each fifth grader is expected to orally present his/her stacks to at least two other students. The Year Book is a personal book highlighting activities from this year.

March 6-17: we will be traveling the Oregon Trail in teams of three. Team members are expected to write in their Oregon Journal daily. We will be reading about the Santa Fe Trail, Children of the Wild West, and Pecos Bill. Additionally we will write to describe what we see along the trail and write directions for such activities as "getting the wagon out of the mud" and "making butter". We will have Native American guests to tell us about their customs. Beading will be done. Toward the end of the unit we will type our experiences and upload selected quotes to the Internet.

Jan 31- Feb 11: Finishing Science MEAPs, HyperStudio reports, reading about catastrophies, enjoying Trickster and Crystal Mountain. Choose any current topic and type a brief report. We will also be writing thank you notes and inserting photographs of our trip.

Jan 17-28: We will use our skills at HyperStudio to produce our first HyperStudio Book Report. Student will present their reports orally while shining their HyperStudio stack on the wall. (Minimum 5 pages) We will also be taking the Writing & Social Studies MEAP Tests.

Jan. 10-14: This week we will be writing about a catastrophy and how we can cope with it. (blizzard, tornado, earthquake) We will be taking timed typing tests. We need to check the Internet and write paragraphs about science. Choose one of these to write about: Static Electricity, Complete Circuit, M&M & Skittles Bar Graphs, MEAP Lab. Add a photograph to your essay.

January 3, 2000: Welcome back! This week we will be writing newsworthy paragraphs. You may choose to write a paragraph to go with a photographs on one of the following pages. Tie Dye // Christmas Concert // Christmas Party // Watching the News on Channel 70. E-mail Mrs. Eldridge. Send her one of your paragraphs. By Friday, you are expected to have three well written paragraphs ready to type.

Dec. We will be reading & writing about various points of view. We will be writing about times when we learned a lesson. Our Unit is called, "Try to see it my way". Will also be typing some of our science essay questions as we learn to answer essays completely.

Nov. 16-29: We will be rereading various issues of Tracks Magazine and writing a business letter to the magazine's editor. We will tell her how we enjoy the magazines. We will also write to Spirit of the Woods Club to thank them for providing the magazines. The girls will likely be writing about their winning basketball season. They will be able to incorporate photographs into their article.

During the first two weeks of November we will be writing persuasion articles and articles about Red Ribbon Week. The title of one of our writings will be "My Future is Bright". We will add this article to our portfolio. Later we will make a web page on this topic.

Oct. 18-22: We will be typing our Science notes in a neat outline form. We will begin writing compare/contrast paragraphs using animals groups we are studying in science.

Oct. 4 - 15: We are getting accustomed to "At Ease" and "Global Shared". We are learning to insert digital photograph images into our word processing documents. We will be using "Highway Clean-up" photographs. We also spent 3 days creating a group presentation on an adventure in outer space. Most, but not all of us enjoyed working in groups. We will be taking the first of five Integrated Theme Tests related to our language series.

Sept. 27 - Oct. 1: We will begin to read Sally Ride's book Voyager: An Adventure to the Edge of the Solar System. We will be writing compare / contrast paragraphs. Our final copies will be typed. We will continue keyboarding practice daily.

Sept. 20-24: We will continue to work on our keyboarding. We will go through a three session process and complete our essay on the topic "a personal adventure". We will finish reading about Matthew Henson's Arctic Adventure. Most of us will have taken our first Accelerated Reading test of the year. We should all have finished one novel of our choice by this date.

Sept. 7-17: We will learn to type the letters of the alphabet, common punctuation and capitals as we review types of sentences. We will become familiar with the word processing program Microsoft Word and the typing program All the Right Type. We will write dialogue using the program Hollywood. We will each write a paragraph about the school. We will complete chapters from the book James and the Giant Peach.

On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the Middle School students broadcast the news from the Distance Learning Room. Sometimes the fifth graders watch them prepare and present the news. Some are interested in being involved in broadcasting the news for the elementary. Do you think we could do it?

How did it feel preparing for the concert? Describe the concert. Add plenty of details.

Be sure to have a great begining and ending.

Describe the steps needed to tie dye a shirt.

Our Reading corner has a wide variety of novels. Student keep the books in order by author's last name. Authors A - L are found in Mrs. Eldridge's room. Authors M - Z can be found on shelves in Mr. Finan's room. More books are housed in the library.

Ryan admires a hand woven basket.